Meal Kit Supply MRE Review - Pouch 6

This is a first in a series of full MRE pouch reviews from Meal Kit Supply. The time is quite considerable when doing these full reviews, so I'll be trying to complete at least one a month. If time and school allows, then I'll try to squeeze in an extra one here and there. The future also holds a "Meet the Reviewers' post and a new page for Meal Kit Supply reviews. You can also check out their Facebook page, and let them know that we sent you!

Nutritional Information:

The complete nutritional information for every pouch, and the items in them, are available here.

Menu 6 includes: 19 oz (1.19 LB)

Apple Maple Oatmeal
Brown Sugar Toaster Pastry
Wheat Snack Bread & Blackberry Jam
Maple Muffin Top
Orange Electrolyte Beverage Powder
Instant Coffee, Creamer, & Sugar
Condiments, Spoon, Moist Towelette, Napkin

After opening the pouch, the MREs are individually sealed to further protect the freshness and quality of the food. This allows you to save or trade certain dishes.

The water-activated flameless ration heater is not your standard heater either. It is a heavy duty 22 grams, instead of 11 grams, and will heat up your rations in the coldest of conditions.

The orange drink was mixed with the recommended amount of water, and I thought that it would have been better with a little less water.

• Row, the seven year old, likes Tang and thought that it tasted a lot like it.

• Red Ant with Spikes, the four year old, didn't care for the drink. 

• Sweetheart, my lovely wife, didn't really care for it, but she doesn't care for Tang either.

• I compared it to Orange Kool-aid after the ice had begun to melt. A little less water and it would have been much better.

The cocoa was a smash hit!

• Red Ant, the youngest, was the first to take a sip from the mug. After his first taste, he then proceeded to almost chug the hot cocoa. 

• Row liked the hot cocoa just as much, and we had to split the remaining cocoa between the two cups. I'm pretty sure that a family feud was about to start over the remaining cocoa.

• Sweetheart noted the good chocolate smell and liked it. 

• My only thoughts were "creamy chocolate goodness!"

The Toaster Pastry was actually a little bit of a shock. I hadn't planned on seeing a Pop-tart in the MRE. I imagine that it would be nice to see a familiar product during a stressful situation.

Surprisingly, the Pop-tart was in excellent shape and wasn't broken into pieces. The pouch and vacuum sealed package of the Pop-tart won my star, when the Pop-tart emerged in one piece. Through numerous backpacking trips, I have reduced many foods to crumbs before they made it to my plate.

• Sweetheart's comment was that "it tastes just like a Pop-tart!" 

• Red Ant said that "I like it, but not to eat it all." 

• While Row said this: "I gotta tell you. It's cinnamon and I like it!"

• I've never had this flavor and thought that it was very good.

• Row, the seven year old, hasn't had much of a history with oatmeal, but thought that it tasted like the apple pie that they had made in kindergarten.

• Red Ant with Spikes, the four year old, is new to oatmeal and didn't care for the cinnamon and apple variety. He doesn't like cinnamon either.

• Sweetheart was thoroughly impressed with the oatmeal. She thought that it was better than the Quaker brand, and "to me, that's not oatmeal. It tastes like a dessert!"

• I immediately noticed that almost half of the oatmeal was minced apples, about a 40/60 mix. The oatmeal was very comparable to an apple crisp. Needless to say, it was a pleasant surprise.

• Red Ant didn't like the Blackberry jam on the wheat bread. He actually prefers grape jelly, which would have probably been better for the review.
• Row didn't like it either, but he's not a jam person either.
• Sweetheart was impressed with the all natural ingredients in the jam, and noted that the taste was excellent.
• I thought that the blackberry jam was a nice compliment to the wheat bread. The bread has a heavy texture and the jam had a pleasant tartness to it. We opted to leave the butter off the bread since it wasn't in the MRE, and I really didn't miss it. The bread and jam would make for a decent light breakfast if you were in a hurry.

• Sweetheart really liked the maple muffin top the last time it was reviewed, but liked it even more this time. "It smells like a pancake, but had a fresher feel than the earlier sample we tried." The hint of maple was also pleasantly noted.
• Red Ant with Spikes thought that it smelled good, but didn't care for the taste.
• Row's spontaneous comment was that "it would be a good camping pancake...with syrup."
• On my first bite, the freshness was very noticeable compared to another company's maple muffin top that we had reviewed. The maple muffin top could have very well passed for a homemade one, if I hadn't taken it out of the package myself.

The last item that we opened was the condiment pack, and I had joked earlier that the only thing missing was a cup of coffee. Well, you can image my big grin when I saw the packet drop out of the wrapper. While the coffee is instant, it had a good taste and would leave me wanting for another cup of it.

Final Thoughts:

This is a lot of food for one person, and I could easily see this pouch being split between two people. If all of the MRE pouches have this much food, then I could eat just two pouches a day, and still be very happy. This MRE pouch is also self-contained and has everything you need except for the water, and the time to enjoy it. You can also leave the stove at home, because the ration heater is in the pouch too. It didn't really occur to me until writing this review, but this meal is vegetarian. If all vegetarian meals were this satisfying, then I could do more meatless days.The freshness factor was also noticeable, it does make a difference.

The favorite drink and food pick for each reviewer:

• Row: Cocoa and Pop-tart

• Red Ant: Cocoa and Pop-tart

• Sweetheart: Cocoa and oatmeal

• K: Cocoa and a tie between Oatmeal and Bread w/ jam

 

Stars:

Apple Maple Oatmeal * * * (3)
Brown Sugar Toaster Pastry * * * * (4)
Wheat Snack Bread & Blackberry Jam * * (2)
Maple Muffin Top * * * (3)
Orange Electrolyte Beverage Powder * * * (3)
Instant Coffee, Creamer, & Sugar * * (2) The boys didn't sample this one